Let’s start with the fairy tale that came true for the gasoline magnates:
- Once upon a time, a number of companies bought up drilling rights here and oil refineries there and eventually gained control over the USA’s gasoline.
- For a while, gasoline hovered under $2 a gallon, and the companies and magnates had to console themselves with–ho hum–tidy profits.
- One day, some people began to worry that there wasn’t always going to be enough gas for everyone. “Demand will grow,” they said. “Supply will fall.”
- But the gas companies and magnates, instead of panicking, began rubbing their hands together. Gigantic, ridiculously huge profits, they knew, come to those who wait.
- Next, developing countries started buying cars and, at the same time, world gas production pretty much peaked. In other words, demand grew. Supply fell.
- Prices skyrocket, people suffered, but the oil and gas companies and magnates made huge, unprecedented profits.
- Peak oil, it turned out, wasn’t their worst nightmare at all. It was their happiest fantasy!
- So the oil companies and magnates lived happily ever after.
- Too bad about everyone else.
Now let’s look at the future fairy tale that the companies who privatize our drinking water look forward to:
- Nestle, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Suez and a bunch of other companies buy up water rights around the United States and elsewhere.
- For a while, people buy bottled water for less than $2 a gallon (even though tap water is free).
- The water barons console themselves with–ho hum–tidy profits, selling their water for something like a thousand times what they pay for it.
- Then, the phrase “peak water” gets bandied about, but far from worrying that the water will run out, the water barons begin buying water rights up faster than ever.
- Next, in some future scenario, underfunding to the municipal water supplies or pollution in the aquifers means that clean tap water becomes scarcer and scarcer and drinking bottle water is not a choice but a necessity.
- In other words, demand grows, Supply falls.
- Prices skyrocket, people suffer, but the water barons make huge, unprecedented profits.
- Peak water, it turns out, wasn’t their worst nightmare at all. It was their happiest fantasy!
- So the water barons lived happily ever after.
- Too bad about everyone else.
You see, it’s not just about the plastic bottles. It’s not just about the food miles. It’s about the fundamental right of access to drinking water. Are we willing for our children to have happen to them for water what is happening to us for gas?
We can make a difference!
- Take action against privatization of water in California here.
- Support federal funding of clean drinking water here.
- Learn how to boycott bottled water here.
- Read about my ultra-cool reusable water bottle here.
- I don’t know what else, do you? Please leave your ideas in the comments!